Eighty-seven years after experiencing the devastation of Kristallnacht, Walter Bingham, a 101-year-old Holocaust survivor, expresses that the present world feels eerily reminiscent of Nazi Germany back in 1938.
Bingham was just 14 when the Nazis and fellow Germans violently attacked Jewish businesses, homes, and places of worship. During this notorious night, known as Kristallnacht, the Nazis destroyed over 1,400 synagogues, vandalized countless Jewish-owned shops, and assaulted Jewish residences, as documented by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
On that dark night, roughly 26,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps simply for being Jewish.
Bingham recently noted to a news outlet that the current rise in anti-Semitism, especially following the Israel-Hamas conflict, feels alarmingly familiar. He stated, “We are living in the same time as 1938, when synagogues were set on fire and people in the streets were attacked.”
This ongoing trend isn’t limited to past events: a synagogue in Manchester suffered a tragic terrorist attack last October during Yom Kippur, where a man drove into worshipers and fatally stabbed two Jewish men. Furthermore, an Australian synagogue faced arson last year, which was condemned as an anti-Semitic act by the country’s prime minister.
The Anti-Defamation League revealed alarming statistics last year, reporting 9,354 anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. alone. That marked a 5% increase since 2023 and an astonishing 344% uptick over the last five years, with an even more staggering 893% rise observed over the past decade.
Bingham conveyed his views on the persistence of anti-Semitism, suggesting it might never fully disappear as it often serves as a scapegoat for society’s issues. He elaborated that living today feels strikingly similar to life in pre-war Germany, albeit with one notable distinction: “The Jewish mindset at the time was apologetic,” he explained. “Don’t do anything to me, I won’t do anything to you.”
However, he also expressed gratitude for Israel, emphasizing, “Thank God, today we have a very strong nation called Israel. While anti-Semitism is still on the rise, one thing that won’t happen is the Holocaust, because the state will police it.” He is hopeful, even amidst the troubling climate today.
